Sugar in various forms has long been used in the preparation of foods and beverages, as well as in many other applications. Sugar is often used as a basic ingredient in recipes, and is commercially available in various forms including crystals, granulated and powdered sugars, and sugar blends such as brown sugar. While sugar is a generic term that is generally used to refer to sucrose, it may also be used to refer to other types of sugar such as glucose, fructose, maltose and lactose which also find wide-ranging uses in similar applications.
There is a continuing need for new and improved sugar products and blends with physical characteristics that better suit particular applications of such products. For example, with sugar products and blends that are used in food and beverage applications, it is generally desirable for the sugar or sugar blend to readily dissolve when mixed with other ingredients. Also, sugar can be used as part of a delivery system for pharmaceuticals, nutritional additives and other ingestible ingredients.
In addition to the ease of dissolution, many other characteristics of sugar products and blends, such as color and flavor, may also bear on the effectiveness of such products for their intended purposes. Other characteristics such as the flowability of a product may have significant impact on packaging and other considerations which may in turn affect the suitability of a product for particular purposes, as well as the economics associated with marketing the product.